Cold Heaven
by A Legacy Eternal
Summary: Cloud and Vincent and two guest characters take drastic measures to stop the production of a ShinRa-produced Weapon--resurrecting Sephiroth! Let me be blunt--this is meant to play with your adrenaline, not your heart or head. Not very deep. First fic.
1. Beginning

Beginning  
  
Cloud stepped out of the dark, murky cave and out onto the open fields. Sunlight bathed the swaying grasses on the other side of the swamp. Beneath the surface of the water twisted and curled the Zolom. Cloud readied Ultima Weapon; turned and nodded once to Vincent. Vincent's scarf billowed like a silken flame as he leapt into the air, landed deftly on a lily pad, and continued in this fashion towards the opposite shore, even through the shallow depths. The Ice materia in the Ultima Weapon flashed once and as the Zolom broke the surface of the water, body bent in a backwards 'L'. Cloud touched the sword to the swamp, and the lake froze over immediately in a flare of white. The Zolom was no exception-the green and orange scales turned a cold blue. Vincent turned and fired his gun; the force from the twin barrels, more than anything, shattered the frozen snake. Cloud stepped onto the ice and dashed nimbly across, just as the spell lost it's effect and the water liquefied once more. In the distance, Midgar loomed, fresh out of repairs, a metal haven out-of-place amidst the calm of the surrounding area.  
  
"So you're going to resurrect Sephiroth," Vincent murmured, staring at Cloud as Cloud, in turn, gazed at Midgar.  
"Yeah. If what I've heard is true, then it's our only chance, Vincent." He began toward the city at a steady clip, Mako-blue eyes trained on his target. Vincent followed.  
"And what exactly have you heard?" Vincent replied.  
"That the new president at ShinRa-"  
"Athene."  
"Right. Athene. She's rumored to have created her own Weapon."  
"Weapon?" Vincent came to a dead stop. "As in, Ruby and Emerald?"  
  
"Yeah." Cloud stopped, too, and glanced back at him. "Even more powerful than the originals." From his pocket Cloud produced a small red orb, swirling with inner energy. He held it up to the light and watched the lances of sunshine split and dance within. "Even the Knights of The Round wouldn't leave a scratch on it."  
Vincent's expression, which was usually solemn enough, became even more so. "So Sephiroth is our only chance."  
"And a longshot, too," Cloud remarked, before turning and starting toward Midgar again.  
Vincent silently followed.  
  
Behind them, two figures silently stole behind rocks and beneath shadows. They whispered to each other only what absolutely had to be said and were otherwise invisible. Either wielded a katana made of solidified Mako energy-in essence, a "Materia Blade". 


	2. Assault

Assault  
  
Cloud and Vincent crept around the corner. Behind them, a trail of the perfect chaos-silent chaos-told of their passing; the only thing left breathing were the pipes as they puffed out clouds of steam. Guards were violently strewn about in the morbid wake; oil and blood mixed in the gutters as they moved deeper into the ShinRa building. The ease of the attack had been unsettling: unskilled guards, few in number, had been patrolling randomly around the front with no set routes, and no way of stopping Cloud and Vincent had they even seen them coming. It was far too quiet for Cloud's liking. They were near the top floor, the office of the ShinRa executives, and hadn't run into anything more dangerous than a lone RoboGuard. Not only that, but they found bodies already dismembered and left behind-someone else with similar intentions was in the complex.  
  
The doors slowly shifted open. Too slowly. Cloud wedged the mighty blade and lurched to the right, prying them open even faster. Vincent's gun cocked and protruded briefly from the doorway, then dropped. There was nothing visible in the dark office. Cloud stepped into the room, groping along the wall for a light switch-  
"Over here, darling."  
The cold, female voice poured from the other side of the room as the lights flickered to life. Sitting on the top of a desk was a blonde woman clad in a dark red suit. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with a full figured body and pouty, full lips, contrasting sharply with her frigid, calculating eyes. Cloud lowered his sword, but Vincent kept his gun trained on the woman. She smiled seductively at him.  
"Oh, but you don't have to use that gun." She slid down off of the desk. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Athene, president of ShinRa Corporation."  
Cloud visibly tensed. He had only expected to find Sephiroth here. Killing her now might stop the production of the new..  
"Let me guess," Athene began. "The new Weapon we're working on. You're here to find some way of stopping us."  
"Yeah." Cloud was perturbed. Us? "How did you know?"  
"I know everything, Cloud Strife," Athene retorted. "I even know what you're planning to do. Let me assure you.it won't work."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Even if you do resurrect Sephiroth...how do you expect to get him to help you?"  
A hail of shot clouded the area around Athene, but not a bullet hit her. Vincent's expression didn't change, but almost imperceptibly, the gun in his hand trembled.  
"Force field," she said in a lilting, sing-song tone.  
"Dammit, Athene!" Cloud suddenly yelled. His sword plunged into the ground next to him, biting easily through the steel and stone floor. "You don't know what it's like-you can't control a Weapon!"  
"And how are you any different from me?" Athene inquired. "You plan to resurrect the one person responsible for very nearly bringing about the end of the world to stop me-how do you plan to control that?"  
Cloud was struck speechless.  
"You see, Cloud, unlike you, I can control the Weapon. A.I. programs will be coded in-"  
A shadow abruptly dropped from the ceiling and a glowing green katana was raised to Athene's throat. The force field didn't seem to affect anything but metal. The black clad figure whispered something to Athene, then gestured toward Cloud with the blade. She gulped, barely able to hold her composure, and nodded, and the person disappeared.  
"What did he want?" Cloud demanded.  
"He said.to leave you alive." Athene panted. She then looked up at Cloud with a devious grin. "However.I'm not inclined to allow that to happen." Athene slammed her fist down on a switch.  
The space of floor between them lowered like an elevator for a moment before reappearing. Standing on it was a robotic humanoid, wielding a spear.  
"Meet Lance," Athene laughed, icily. "My newest invention. Designed specifically to be the best close combat fighter ever known. He's able to wield any weapon like a master; right now, I see he's chosen a spear." The window behind Athene opened. She backed up a couple of steps, blowing a kiss toward them.  
"Why don't you become more intimately acquainted?"  
She dropped backwards, out of view.  
  
As the helicopter sputtered off into the night, Cloud and Vincent were left to deal with the advancing robot. Lance twirled the spear so fast it became nothing more than a blurred circle of steel, taking slow, determined steps toward Cloud. Cloud lunged forward to gain the upper hand, thrusting his sword with both hands toward Lance's chest. His arms rattled and stung with the force of the parry the bot delivered-his stroke was turned aside with enough momentum to nearly tear the sword out of his hand. Vincent came from behind with his claw, slashing at the loose wiring between Lance's torso and hip, and just barely dodged a whirling cut from the robot's spear. Cloud lunged again, this time stopping just in front of Lance for a split second-luring him into sweeping at Cloud's legs-then leaping into the air, letting the sword drift upward.upward..until it came singing downward in a powerful arc. The robot didn't stand a chance this time: the blade cut cleanly through metal flesh and left Lance severed in two. However, the cloven sentry had done its duty and prevented Cloud and Vincent from pursuing Athene.  
  
"And who was that guy in the black?" Cloud wondered aloud. 


	3. Revelations

Revelations  
  
Cloud stood at the door, leaning hipshot against the doorway. Vincent stood behind him, gun trained over Cloud's shoulder at the ShinRa scientists. The surprised lab workers threw their hands up in despair as an explosion roared outside, the patter of rain doing nothing to drown out the boom. Cloud's spiky hair drifted down over the Mako glow of his eyes for a moment as the force whipped around them. The AirBuster guarding the labs had fallen to a single slash. Cloud's Ultima Weapon was still stained with oil. One scientist stepped forward and Cloud raised his hand.  
"Don't even try it. Every guard in this facility is dead, and Athene fled." He tilted his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. "Does the pay make up for the awful benefits?"  
The scientist looked confused. Athene had praised him and his team for working so hard on the weapon and had simply abandoned them to this wise ass? The man's weathered face remained defiant. "No, it doesn't. What do you want?"  
  
Cloud's reply was short, but nonetheless staggering. "To resurrect Sephiroth."  
The scientist's hand went to his heart.  
  
Two hours later, Cloud had related his story. Two years ago, after they had destroyed Sephiroth, Cloud had hunted down the other two Weapons, Ruby and Diamond, before they could cause any real trouble. A few months after a relatively peaceful quiet, they began to form Avalanche once more to take on ShinRa. The company was once more at harvesting harmful amounts of Mako, and plus, Cloud was going to make damn sure they didn't start any more biogenetic experiments. Skirmishes between the rebellion and ShinRa weren't especially violent, but ShinRa was slipping. Their numbers were dwindling, both in manpower and money. They needed a trump card to play. So when Athene had begun production of her own Weapon to crush Avalanche for good, Cloud had to intervene before she inadvertently destroyed the entire Planet.  
  
The scientist nodded. He hadn't realized exactly how much power he was about to unleash-the output had looked phenomenal on the schematics, sure, but they were just numbers. Besides, the A.I. had been specifically instructed to assault Avalanche. But what about after that? After Sapphire had neared completion and been moved to Junon, his team had been told "not to worry", that the A.I. was only being "fine-tuned" and had been deliberately uninformed about the chaos the previous Weapons had caused. "Sapphire would have acted exactly like them, because that's what the A.I. was programmed to do-to revert to a natural state of command, which we assumed to be become dormant. Obviously, that's not the case." His face grew tight. "But resurrecting Sephiroth? If your story is true, you of all people should wonder why he'd choose to fight alongside you, even if he was brought back to life."  
"Sephiroth was shattered by the idea that he was artificial, unreal, somehow. I think I could talk him out of that, now that Jenova's gone, especially."  
"That's idiocy. All I can say is that you're taking a huge risk here, bringing back a problem that so nearly destroyed us all."  
Cloud sighed heavily, his shoulders going slack for a moment and his eyes closing. Then one hand snatched outward, abruptly, and grasped the front of the lead scientist's coat. He growled, "Don't you think I know that? How do you think it's going to feel, looking into the eyes of someone who killed a girl I could have loved, and fighting alongside him? How do you think it's going to feel, holding every muscle tense for the moment he might turn on me, constantly? I want him to stay dead and gone, I want to bring him back so I can kill him again, I don't know what I want! What has to be done, however, is to destroy the Weapon you have created! Athene's probably gone to GET the damn thing, and it's going to destroy the world! I've got to put my personal feelings aside and do what I have to do to save this world from you worthless bastards!" His voice had grown to a roar and he was close to throttling the poor fool. The scientist just stared at him. He hadn't been there when Sephiroth had killed Aerith, when the sword had burst out of her stomach, when she had drifted into the water to disappear from view, and Cloud's life, forever. Cloud hadn't been able to deal with that very well, and even now it bothered him, surfacing in these outbursts toward his teammates and those that associated with him. He let go of the unfortunate lab rat and turned away, lowering his head and stalking out of the office. Vincent stepped forward.  
"The first one to say anything other than what I ask gets to give my gun a blowjob. Now, where is Sephiroth?" 


End file.
